Passing English of the Victorian Era, published in 1909 by James Redding Ware, collects London slang from the nineteenth century. Ware wrote under the pen name Andrew Forrester, creator of one of the first female detectives in fiction. Slang shifted quickly: got the morbs meant a bout of low spirits, mutton shunter was slang for a policeman, and batty-fang meant to thrash someone thoroughly. Ware noted that slang varied by neighbourhood, with Clerkenwell, Lambeth and Southwark each having their own variations. The book saves language that drifted away almost as fast as it appeared.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.